Functional MRI study of language organization in left-handed and right-handed trilingual subjects

Functional MRI (fMRI) is gaining importance in the preoperative assessment of language. Selecting the appropriate language to test by fMRI in trilingual patients is intricate. Our objective is to compare fMRI maps for all three languages in left- and right-handed trilingual subjects. 15 right- and 1...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2020-08, Vol.10 (1), p.13165-13165, Article 13165
Main Authors: Yazbek, Sandrine, Smayra, Tarek, Mallak, Iyad, Hage, Stephanie, Sleilaty, Ghassan, Atat, Chirine, Abdel Hay, Joe, Moussa, Ronald
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
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Adult
Brain - diagnostic imaging
Brain - physiology
Female
Functional Laterality - physiology
Functional magnetic resonance imaging
Handedness
Healthy Volunteers
Humanities and Social Sciences
Humans
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
Language
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
multidisciplinary
Multilingualism
Psychomotor Performance
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Young Adult
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Summary:Functional MRI (fMRI) is gaining importance in the preoperative assessment of language. Selecting the appropriate language to test by fMRI in trilingual patients is intricate. Our objective is to compare fMRI maps for all three languages in left- and right-handed trilingual subjects. 15 right- and 15 left-handed trilingual volunteers were included in the study. We performed fMRI for each volunteer with a visual responsive naming paradigm that was repeated three times, once in each language. The activated areas and the laterality indices were calculated and correlation with the age of acquisition and proficiency of each language was determined. Strong statistical correlation was found between the Laterality Index (LI) of the three languages, in both the right and left-handed groups. Discordant lateralization of language was only observed in four left-handed subjects who demonstrated bilateral and left-lateralization. In right-handed subjects, the activation maps for the first and the second acquired language were similar. The largest activation was seen with the last acquired language. Irrespective of language proficiency and age of acquisition, the language lateralization might change for left-handed subjects. In right-handed subjects, there is no change and the last acquired language results in the largest activation. fMRI performed for a single language can accurately determine language lateralization in right-handed subjects, whereas in left-handed subjects, it is mandatory to test all languages.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-020-70167-y